The American Library Association's Glossary of Library and Information Science defines a reference source as:
“Any source used to obtain authoritative information in a reference transaction. Reference sources can include printed materials, but are not limited to databases, media, the Internet, other libraries and institutions, and persons both inside and outside the library” (Levine-Clark & Carter, 2012).
You need some basic background knowledge of your topic in order to develop a research question or thesis statement. By familiarizing yourself with the topic, you will have a better chance of conducting efficient research, using relevant sources and appropriate search terms.
Use encyclopedias, dictionaries, and online reference sources to start familiarizing yourself with your topic.
For more about this process, see "Working Knowledge" in the Conducting Research LibGuide.
"You have a working knowledge of a topic when you can talk about it for one minute without repeating yourself" (Badke, p.28)
Using general reference sources is a great strategy to build a working knowledge.
We build a working knowledge by using encyclopedias and dictionaries, two of the most common reference resources.
You could even think of Wikipedia as a type of reference source, but crowd-sourced and unsecure, so we may not want to cite it directly. If there are credible references in the footnotes, feel free to follow those back to the source of origin!
Check out a listing of online reference sources that librarians have identified as being relevant to this prompt below.
Dictionaries are books that provide definitions for terms or phrases. These can be great to use if you need to define terms or concepts that help introduce your readers to topics in your paper.
They are organized alphabetically and can be both general and subject-specific. This means you could find a dictionary that is catered entirely to your topic! Badke (2017) suggests that dictionaries are the second most helpful resource for a researcher to build a working knowledge.
When you are searching for dictionaries related to your topic in OneSearch, keep these strategies in mind:
A great student oriented database with current events, consumer health, and career information. Topic overviews, reports, biographies, journal articles, and more. Education majors can access Curriculum Standards.
Covering medical sciences, food sciences and nutrition, childcare, sports medicine and general health. use this database to access easy to understand articles from consumer health magazines. Also includes a useful medical dictionary.
This well-known dictionary includes definitions, an audio pronunciation guide, a word history and more. Search words by subject categories and country of origin.
Encyclopedias summarize basic knowledge about a variety of topics, phenomena, and time periods. They are like the original Wikipedia and are written by experts and scholars in various fields. encyclopedias can be both general and subject-specific.
You can use encyclopedias to get basic high-level information on parts of your topic. You can also cite encyclopedia articles in order to bring your readers onto the same page, creating a baseline for how you introduce topics throughout your paper.
When you are searching for encyclopedia articles related to your topic in OneSearch, keep these strategies in mind:
Not just an online encyclopedia, Britannica Academic includes research tools such as an interactive world atlas and a country comparison. It also provides important current news articles, and plenty of primary sources for your research. A great source for the beginning stages of your research.
A great student oriented database with current events, consumer health, and career information. Topic overviews, reports, biographies, journal articles, and more. Education majors can access Curriculum Standards.
Use this online encyclopedia for summaries of topics, or to explore topics when starting research. Provided by Ebsco, the database offers all the convenient functions including ability to listen to an article, as well as quickly saving an article to Google Drive.
Use this database to find credible articles written in everyday language. Today's Science includes interesting articles on the latest developments in Mathematics, the Sciences, and Technology. Formats include articles, editorial cartoons, encyclopedia and video.
Quantitative data may be frequently used in our research papers to provide concrete measurements that support or refute claims that we explore. Quantitative data can be used to answer your research question, to illustrate the results of statistical tests and experiments, to illustrate the results of surveys and large data collection projects.
Statistical data related to criminal justice
Data and statistics on California students and schools. Also, look up the websites for individual school districts or schools to see what data they share.
The Open Data Portal provides the public with free and easy access to a wide variety of county data, while also instituting appropriate security safeguards for confidential or legally restricted information.
DataLB is the city's new public GeoSpatial & Open Data Portal for exploring, visualizing and downloading data that has been made publicly available.
Published by the FBI, use this resource for statistics needs in your Criminal Justice studies. Search data by location or dataset. View detailed statistics that include information about type of weapon, crime location and victim-offender relationship.
Start with any of the topics along the News menu bar dropdown lists, or view the trending topics on the Key Topics dropdown. Great for current issues and all articles include data and charts.
Millions of datasets find their home on the Web. Google offers a search engine specific to finding datasets. Search by keyword and then use the filters to narrow down the type of data you need (images, graphs, text, etc.).
The Open Data Portal provides the public with free and easy access to a wide variety of county data, while also instituting appropriate security safeguards for confidential or legally restricted information.
Download and learn more about every dataset on the NDSC platform including the original data sources, available years, and why each variable is important to measure.
NACJD is home to nearly 3,000 studies that cover a wide range of topics. Includes large-scale and well-known datasets, such as the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), and the FBI's National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). Be sure to check out the Resources > Learning and Data Guides to link to specific information about a topic.
